Hello, I'm a newbie and I'm still learning the functions of Filemaker. What I'm trying to find out now is how to trigger an event (like running a script) after entering data to a specific field? But I've read from other posts in the forum that says triggering a script on field exit is only possible using a plug-in. I tried the example-plugins from www.filemakerpros.com but I think it only works for Filemaker 7 and I have Filemaker 6. So is there a free plug-in about triggering an event on field exit that works for Filemaker 6?

(Still fairly new to filemaker, but to the best of my knowledge...)

This IMHO is a major failing of filemaker. There is no 'OnExit' event triggering. However in filemaker 7 plugins have been given the ability to run scripts meaning that a calculation field (that must validate on exit) could call the plugin from its validation. Its a quirky work around and only available in Filemaker 7 as far as I'm aware.

In my own projects I've setup scripted buttons for both entry and exit of a layout and done my own validation in these events.

Try working with an event based plugin for a while and you'll see why Filemaker might be cautious about using it. For instance, there is a free shell script plugin from Abstrakt.com. I recently did some testing with it, setting it up to append a line of text to a log fiile every time a field is modified. And guess what?

It turns out that if you import data, this calculation triggers N times for ONE record, where N is the number of data fields, because that's how the Filemaker calculation engine updates. If you import 400 records, the log file will show about 806 records.

Try this website for a free plug-in that triggers on field exit and works in FM 6 for Windows.

http://costello_ryan.tripod.com/download.htm

Hope this helps.